Tory leader argues for night curfew
A CURFEW for the worst night time troublemakers could provide a shot in the arm for the town centre, it’s been argued.
Proposals for banning orders near the town’s main nightspots between 7pm and 7am have been unveiled by Accrington councillor Tony Dobson.
Coun Dobson, who is leader of Hyndburn’s Conservative group, says anyone flouting the bans could be locked up, and claims ridding the streets of its unsavoury element could boost the evening economy ‘by up to 60 per cent’.
The Tory group leader said he has been exploring ways of boosting the town centre’s night time economy, after revealing in the Observer last month a series of measures to bolster the daytime economy - including offering council tax discounts for people who shop locally.
Labour council bosses said his plan was a good idea in principle, but “easy to say when you’re not an actual police officer”.
Coun Dobson said: “I’ve done some very basic research with some of the publicans in Accrington town centre. I wanted to see what is the one thing that the council could contribute to improving the town centre in the evening. This idea I came up with was about transferring what we are doing with the daytime economy with thieves and vagabonds into the night time economy. We feel it could make the difference of improving trade by 60 per cent.”
He said many of the recurring issues are caused by individuals who have already been banned from bars through the town’s PubWatch scheme.
Coun Dobson said: “There are stories of people who have walked into a pub, seen someone at a bar and, for absolutely no reason, smacked somebody. There are people who come into town knowing they’re banned but just hanging around outside ‘play boxing’ with their friends on the streets and making prats of themselves. If all you want to do is come out with your friends for a drink on Warner Street the last thing you want is a group of lads with shirts off in the middle of winter. They can still hang around and make it a very nervy and suspicious environment for the sort of people we do want to get out.”
He said dealing with problem individuals would work in the same way as with the exclusion zone on prolific shoplifters, announced by the council last month.
He added: “We are looking at the worst offenders, people who have a track record of causing trouble in the town centre. I would hope it would work very similarly to the daytime economy in that once you have got the first dozen or so hopefully the message goes out that this is what we are going to do. If you want to come into Accrington town centre and be a part of the night time economy, you are going to have to behave yourself and treat the town centre with respect.
“All town centre pubs have got to have CCTV and have it available for about 30 days. Breaching it could be up to 12 months in prison if they’ve been given the banning order. They may get three months for the first offence. It’s a conversation between the police, the night time economy and the council. It’s just having the will to do it.”
Coun Clare Cleary, Hyndburn council’s cabinet member for regeneration, questioned how workable the plan could be in practice and added that the main problem was caused by government laws allowing licensing hours until 6am.
She said: “It’s a good idea but it’s a broad idea and the detail of it needs to be drawn up by Coun Dobson and he needs to liaise with the police. It’s easy to say when you’re not an actual police officer. I’ve had this discussion with Tony and it’s all very well coming up with your own ideas, but they’re the professionals. You’ve got to be careful how you deal with people. Where do you draw the line? Are they a known troublemaker and smashing windows, or are they just walking down the street? You cannot actively target people. Until central government start taking steps to curb and control licensing hours there’s nothing publicans can do apart from having good doorstaff.”